Once Upon A Time On Gallifrey: Stories for Ginger Time Babies
by JunoInferno
Summary: An illness and marathon parenting leads a certain Time Lord to get inventive with his bedtime stories. It's like 1001 Nights, but with Ginger Time Babies instead of that mean guy. Did I mention it's just fluff?
1. The Grotyan Dots

Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who. This set of stories will take place in the Regarding Mrs Smith ficverse and is fluff. Just fluff that rattles around in my brain sometimes that I hope some other people like. Let me know what you think and happy reading!

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The Doctor laid in the bed next to Zara. She was all tucked in for the night with Pooh and Mister Scallofrax on either side of her. Esther laid at the foot of the bed. Usually at the end of a long day of exploring as they had on Grotya that day, she would be fast asleep by now and it just wasn't happening.

"Please, Daddy, one more story," she whined.

It had been five stories. Possibly six. The Doctor had lost count. Zara usually went to bed within two, but it just wasn't happening. He looked up to see Donna was standing in the doorway.

"Chloe and Geoffrey are both fast asleep," said Donna.

"Are they?," asked the Doctor.

"Yes. They are," Donna said pointedly.

Oh. The Doctor remembered what was promised before they had given the children supper and what had not occurred since Donna had been pregnant.

"Right," said the Doctor, turning to Zara. "Listen, Zara, at this point I feel as if you would do just as well to lay down with your eyes closed."

"I can't fall asleep," Zara complained as the Doctor got up from the bed.

"You're not trying hard enough," said Donna. She gave Zara a kiss. "Sweet dreams."

Donna leaned down and gave Esther a rub of the ears as she settled at the foot of Zara's bed.

"Nighty-night," said the Doctor pushing Donna into the next room. "Good night, Esther!"

The door was shut and double-locked behind them as the Doctor and Donna arrived in their room. It was lined with three doors these days, one for each child's room, but they were happily all shut and locked.

"Eager, aren't we?," Donna asked with a smile.

"Oh, yes," said the Doctor. He leaned in to kiss his wife's neck, but she was determined to talk.

Donna frowned. "That's not like Zara. She's usually so fast to sleep. Chloe took some convincing and Geoffrey was fussy..."

"Donna, how long do we have until Geoffrey wakes up?"

"Two hours, probably," said Donna.

"Then let's not waste it," the Doctor said and continued the kissing.

Soon, the kissing progressed and they were on the bed. They were both giving thought to the removal of clothing when they heard Geoffrey let out a scream from his nursery.

"Two hours," the Doctor protested. "You said two hours!"

Donna got off the bed with a sigh. "Sorry, I don't do money back."

The Doctor threw himself back on the bed. "I can't believe this..."

"Just calm down," said Donna. "Probably hungry again. Give me fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen?," asked the Doctor.

"Fifteen," said Donna walking into the door for Geoffrey's nursery.

"I'm timing it!," the Doctor called after her.

The Doctor heard the doors to the other two rooms unlock and Zara's voice became audible.

"Mummy!," she called.

The Doctor groaned and hurried into her room. "Zara, whatever this is it had better be able to be solved in fifteen minutes. Well, fourteen minutes, fifteen seconds..." he said flipping on the light. "Oh, that might take more than fourteen minutes."

Esther glared at the Doctor in annoyance. Zara was covered in purple spots. She scratched at her arm. "It itches!"

"I bet it does," said the Doctor. He walked over and rolled up her sleeve. They were everywhere. "That is not good."

"What is it?"

Just then, Chloe walked in through a door that had just appeared on Zara's wall. She was also covered in the purple spots and looked at the Doctor pitifully.

"Not good," said the Doctor.

"Doctor!," Donna screamed.

The Doctor looked up as Donna carried in Geoffrey who was also covered in purple spots.

"Why does my baby have purple spots?," asked Donna. She then caught sight of the girls. "Why are all of my children covered in purple spots?"

"Itchy!," Chloe shouted.

"I don't know why they have purple spots," said the Doctor. "Except..."

"Except?," Donna prodded.

"Well, we visited Grotya today and I believe I mentioned that the Grotyans have two hearts just like Time Lords."

"Yes?," asked Donna.

"Well, it's the Grotyan Dots," said the Doctor.

"The Grotyan Dots?"

"It's sort of like the Chicken Pox for Grotyans and Time Babies. Humans aren't affected, so I thought they'd be immune."

"There wasn't an inoculation or something?," asked Donna.

"Well, nobody on Gallifrey had it for thousands of years, Donna. There really wasn't the need to keep the inoculation around."

"Is there a cure?," asked Donna.

"Well, not as such-"

"Daddy!," screamed Zara.

"We just have to let the thing run its course. Seventy-two hours and their Time Lord immune systems will have fought off the virus! That's all! There's just going to be a lot of itching and purple dots."

"Well, can't you give them something to make them more comfortable so they can sleep?," asked Donna.

The Doctor ran his hand through his hair. "Well, yes, I can give them something to stop the itching, but they aren't going to sleep."

"What do you mean they aren't going to sleep?," Donna asked tersely.

"Well, you know how sometimes if we don't get the children to bed on time they just keep going?"

"Yes."

"See, Time Lords need very little sleep and in fact, we run better on less sleep and sometimes we need our systems to be higher functioning, sort of an evolutionary quirk, like when we are fighting off an illness..." the Doctor's voice trailed off.

"They can't sleep?," Donna asked incredulously. "We are going to take care of ill children for seventy-two hours straight?"

"Uh...yes, that is pretty much it."

"Mummy..." whined Chloe, throwing herself at Donna's leg.

"Come on, everyone," said the Doctor. "Let's go to the clinic and get started."

They walked out Zara's door and into what appeared to be a modified clinic. The monitors and medicine cabinets were all in order along with an array of devices, but the lights had been lowered. There was a big telly with a cartoon already playing. Two beds and a bassinet for the children situated around a play rug with an assortment of Gallifreyan toys, crayons and paper. Esther walked in and laid down on the dog bed the TARDIS had placed for her.

"See, everyone?," asked the Doctor. "The TARDIS already has everything well in hand."

"Itchy!," Chloe shouted.

"Oh, right," said the Doctor. "That."

The Doctor moved quickly to the counter where the TARDIS already had three doses of the necessary medication waiting. Within a minute, everyone was already much less itchy.

"I want a story," said Zara.

"You just had ten," said the Doctor.

"Yes, but you said I don't have to go to sleep now," Zara said.

"No, I just said you couldn't. There's a difference," said the Doctor.

Donna laid down on one of the beds. "Tell them a story and maybe I can sleep for an hour."

The Doctor watched as Donna closed her eyes. "So, you're just going to leave me alone with them?"

She answered while her eyes remained shut. "One, I'm not leaving you. I'm right here. Two, seeing as how I'm the one who has to sleep, yes."

The Doctor looked. The girls were eyeing him expectantly as Geoffrey played with some of the toys on the floor.

"Alright," he relented.


	2. The Time Lady Castrionella and Rapunzel

Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who. Happy reading!

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Zara and Chloe settled at the Doctor's feet as he took a place on the bed to sit.

"Once upon a time, there was a Time Lady called Castrionella," he began. "Now, Time Lords were limited to twelve regenerations- with some notable exceptions, I have no idea how many times the Master somehow managed to slip by-" He saw the looks of confusion on Zara and Chloe's purple-dotted faces. "Never mind that. Anyway, Castrionella, she was experimenting with how to harness the power of the Time Vortex without the High Council knowing so that she could continue to regenerate, but soon the Castellans were onto her. She had to escape."

"Where?," asked Chloe.

"Well, Earth. It was a simple level five planet and she escaped to a time in the medieval period to a village just outside of Wittenberg, Germany, well before Martin Luther's time. Martin Luther, let me tell you, he was quite a twit. Just because I didn't have a nail to loan him! That's not the sort of thing a person goes round with, is it? A nail?"

"Daddy..." prodded Zara.

"You don't want to hear about Martin Luther?"

"No," said Zara.

"Anyway, so she came to Earth and resumed her experiments in this tiny rift in time and space that existed in Wittenberg. Not as potent as the Time Vortex, but that's exile for you. What can you do? So, she started a garden just outside the rift with the hopes of creating a plant she could convert into something digestible that could extend her life force. Then one night, she caught a man in her garden and she was about to add him to her experiments when he mentioned he had been giving her plants to his pregnant wife."

"Why?," asked Zara.

The Doctor sighed. "Because when mummies are pregnant, daddies will do anything for them if they know what's good for them. Now, Castrionella realized that a unborn child, ingesting the power of the Time Vortex, well, that would be quite potent, wouldn't it? Now, Castrionella offered the man a trade: she would let him go if he gave her his unborn child."

"Why did he do that?," asked Zara.

The Doctor shrugged. "Not that clever, I suppose. Anyway, the wife gave birth to a girl called Rapunzel and Rapunzel came to live with Castrionella. To keep her creation a secret, Castrionella built a tower that was high in the sky and also had a time field around it so the High Council couldn't see what was going on."

"Prince!," said Chloe.

"Yes, Chloe, I'm getting to the prince bit," said the Doctor. "Anyway, a side effect of the energy emanating from the time rift was that Rapunzel grew long, beautiful hair that Castrionella would use to get into the tower."

"Why didn't she use her TARDIS?," asked Zara.

The Doctor frowned. "I don't know. Damaged in her escape from Gallifrey? Maybe she didn't want to attract the High Council's attention? Must I know everything?"

"Yes," said Zara.

"Yes," Chloe echoed.

"Right, well, one day a prince came riding along-"

"Was he a Time Lord?," asked Zara.

"No, sorry, just a regular old human prince." The Doctor cleared his throat. "So, anyway, she brings the prince up and the devise a means of escape, he's going to bring her silk for a ladder-"

"Why doesn't she just use her hair?," asked Zara.

"She doesn't-"

Zara interrupted again. "In the movie, they use her hair."

Chloe nodded in agreement.

"Yes, well, Mandy Moore also plays her in the film," said the Doctor. "I'm giving you this version."

"Why isn't Rapunzel ginger?," asked Zara.

"Because her chromosomes didn't mutate for ginger hair. Anyway, back to the story, Rapunzel lets slip that she's been seeing the prince-"

"How?"

"Uh, Castrionella forced her way into Rapunzel's mind. Anyway, Castrionella lures the prince up and then lets him fall into a bed of thorns and he's blinded so he's forced to wander the wastelands-"

"On Gallifrey?," asked Zara.

"No, just regular wastelands-"

"Last time he went to Gallifrey," said Zara.

The Doctor froze. "Did he?"

Zara and Chloe nodded.

"Okay, so Castrionella transported him to Gallifrey through some kind of advanced transmat..." The Doctor waved his hand. "Since we just said she didn't have her TARDIS, but this attracted the attention of the High Council and they took Castrionella and Rapunzel from the tower and back to Gallifrey so they could further investigate. Of course, they trapped Castrionella's consciousness in the Matrix, never to be heard from again and they sent Rapunzel to the Wastelands because she was human, but the rift energy had mutated her so she couldn't be allowed to return to Earth and eventually she found the prince."

"How?," asked Chloe.

The Doctor shrugged. "It's not as if it was hard. She just wandered about and people pointed out the wandering blind prince for her. When she found him, she wept and her tears cured the prince's blindness because she had been somewhat mutated by the rift energy giving her the ability to heal."

"Did they live happily ever after?," asked Zara.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "In the Wastelands they were happy ever after. The Shobogans took them in and they were very happy. The end." The Doctor looked at the girls and grinned broadly at his achievement. "So, what do you think?"

Zara looked at Chloe and back at her father. "We want another story."

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, I thought you might say that."

"Tell us a story with you in it," said Zara.

"Yes!," said Chloe.

"I like the ones with you in it," said Zara.

The Doctor beamed. "Do you now? Well, then let me tell you the story of Captain Jack Harkness and the Beanstalk..."


End file.
